"Bankruptcy is not a viable option because primarily we have
very little debt," said Flint emergency manager Ed Kurtz said, adding that it's
a four to eight year process that would cost between $10 and 18 million. "We've
got to run the city in the meantime."

Kurtz said there were meetings with the city attorneys to see if a bankruptcy filing made sense but said officials determined it would be a very expensive and very time-consuming with little to gain.

"There was very little we can gain from it," Kurtz said of
bankruptcy.

Kurtz said one area where
primary savings could be made in bankruptcy is the roughly $16 million the city pays annually in
retirement healthcare costs.

"(Altering those payments is) something we can do
under (Public Act 436) – I didn't say we were going to, but we have the ability under PA
436," Kurtz said. "Promises were made to those folks. They don't have a great
deal of income. Anything we do to them could be very impactful. We take that
very serious."

The city will have a balanced budget at the end of the
fiscal year, June 30, for the first time since 2007, officials said.

The 2014 budget also is balanced, Kurtz said, and without
major decreases in service levels because of grants supporting police, fire and
planning services.

But there will be about a $7 million reduction in grants to public
safety and planning.

"If we make it through the next three years, then we'll be
on the upward tilt," Kurtz said.